Experts worry over FG’s silence, inaction on 300,000 mass housing initiative

When the Economic Sustainability Committee (ESC) recommended, among other things, the construction of mass housing in other to stimulate the economy, Nigerians clapped, but several months after, nothing is happening, raising concerns among experts and housing industry stakeholders.

The mass housing initiative, recommended along with rural roads construction, targets 300,000 housing units to be delivered in 12 months in each state of the federation at a total cost of N317.29 billion.

The experts, who were reacting to the Federal Government’s decision to build a rail track that will link Kano in Nigeria to Maradi in Niger Republic, wondered what the government’s priorities were.

A Federal Executive Council meeting recently approved the building of a 248-kilometre rail line that will link Kano, Katsina, Jigawa states to Maradi, Niger Republic, at the cost $1.96 billion, igniting outrage across the country.

“The 300,000 mass housing units for each state of the federation which the government said it would build in 12 months as part of ways to stimulate a Covid-19 ravaged economy, what is being done on that? Nobody is just saying anything about that initiative. Has any state broken ground, any procurement done?” one of the experts queried.

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The experts, who also took a critical look at what a Buhari legacy could possibly be, noted, “Infrastructure is not a switch, but takes methodical planning and execution, especially at a time like this when the fiscal state of the country is terrible.

“Instead of talking about a rail line that will serve no known economic purpose, the Federal Government should be bothered about viable economic initiatives like the 300,000 mass housing and rural roads, the service-reflective electricity tariff and the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB).”

The 300,000 mass housing initiative was hailed by housing industry stakeholders, describing it as a good economic recovery strategy post-COVID-19, and, it was reported that, in order to avoid the pitfalls of similar initiatives in the past, the government has set aside funding and put modalities in place for implementation.

“Government will be building the 300,000 houses over 12 months at a total cost of N317.29 billion, using existing institutions. Implementation is expected to be carried out by the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing, the Federal Housing Authority (FHA) and the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN),” Ayo Ibaru, director, Real Estate at Northcourt, confirms to BusinessDay.

Ibaru notes that mass housing projects tended to work best when public expenditure meets rigorous oversight, adding, “We seem to need more of the latter.”

Nigerians were told that as part of modalities to make this project successful, office of the Vice President was to provide the leadership and this, Ibaru explains, was based on the understanding that most initiatives chaired by the VP’s office tended to achieve some level of success.

Damola Akinolire, managing director of Alpha Mead Construction Company, also hails the ESC recommendation, estimating that 300,000 housing units would provide, at least, 6 million direct and indirect jobs. “Although far from making any major dent to the high unemployment figures, it will certainly make an impact,” he says.

The residential housing market, he notes, is one of the most labour-intensive sub-sectors and will generate a lot of economic activity and reduce unemployment.

Though the project appears small in comparison with the stated housing deficit, Oluwakemi Adeyemo, CEO, Future Perfect Properties, still notes that setting up this economic recovery project with as little bias and bottlenecks as possible will add its own quota to reviving the economy.

“To determine the economic recovery output, a set of critical questions needs formulating. These questions must also get answers. This is important for the sake of clarity and measurable output.

“One of such questions should be which of the housing problems will the projects be solving? Nigeria’s housing challenge is three-pronged, namely, supply, demand and macroeconomics. Housing and road projects should seek to solve the macroeconomics challenge,” she posits.